Apple has been accused of "ripping off" a student developer's iPhone
app which was submitted to and rejected by the firm's App Store.

The company allegedly released an app with the same functions, a near-identical logo and the same name, a year after telling the developer that his app was rejected for "security concerns" and for doing things outside the official software development kit's limits.

Greg Hughes, a third year computer science student at the University of Birmingham, developed an application called "Wi-Fi Sync" and offered it to Apple's App Store in May 2010. The app was designed to sync iTunes libraries with iPhones over a wireless wireless network rather than via a USB connector.

After the App Store rejected his submission Mr Hughes put his app up for sale on the Cydia store, a rival to the App Store which sells software for "jailbroken" iPhones - devices which have had the usage limitations imposed by Apple removed. The app, priced at $9.99 (£6.07), has become one of Cydia's top products, selling more than 50,000 copies since its release.

But this Monday, Apple unveiled its new iPhone operating system, iOS 5, with an inbuilt feature also called Wi-Fi Sync, which carries out the same wireless syncing function. It also has a very similar logo [see image above].

Mr Hughes told The Telegraph: “I was completely shocked. I'm in the middle of exams so the timing isn't great."

"I'd been selling my app with that name and icon for a year. Apple knew about it as I'd submitted it to them, so it was surprising to see that they had pinched it for iOS 5.”

He has taken legal advice and says he intends to pursue the matter further.

"At the end of the day you have to stand up and defend your work," he said.

Before his app was rejected, Mr Hughes he received a personal call from an App Store representative called Steve Rea, who said that the app was excellent, but had security issues and went beyond the functions specified in the official iPhone software development kit.

“They did say that the iPhone engineering team had looked at it and were quite impressed,” Hughes told The Register. “They asked me to send my CV for after I graduate.”

Wi-Fi Sync was Mr Hughes' first app release and has funded him through his final year of university. He intends to take up app development full time when he graduates.